Before your estimate
What happens at your estimate, start to finish
Read this before we come out. Ten minutes here saves an hour at your kitchen table, and you will get a better number because you will know what actually drives it.
Send this to a customer
Estimators: send this page in your confirmation message, worded something like this. "Before I come out Thursday, take a look at this page. It explains how we price, what I will ask you, and the two or three things worth deciding beforehand. There is also a calculator on there if you want a ballpark tonight."
The visit
What to expect when we are standing in your kitchen
How long it takes
Most interior walkthroughs run 30 to 45 minutes. A whole house exterior or a full cabinet kitchen can take an hour. We measure, we look at the condition of the surfaces, and we talk.
Who shows up
David, or Chad our project manager. The person who walks your house is the person who prices it, and one of them will be on your job while it runs.
What we measure
Wall square footage for painting, siding area for exteriors, door, drawer, face, handle and hinge counts for cabinets, and wall area plus layers for wallpaper. That is what the price is built from.
What you get after
A written scope with the number, the products, the coats, the prep included and the schedule. No pressure to sign in the room.
Our questions
What we will ask you
None of it is a sales script. Every answer changes the scope or the number.
- Which rooms or surfaces are in, and which are out.
- Ceilings and trim, yes or no. This moves the number more than anything else.
- How long you plan to stay in the house.
- Whether anything has been leaking, ever, in the areas we are painting.
- Whether there is wallpaper anywhere, including behind a painted wall.
- Colors, or whether you want help choosing them.
- How you want to handle furniture, pets and access.
Your homework
What we need you to have decided
You do not need colors picked. You do need these four.
- Your must-do list versus your nice-to-have list.
- A rough budget ceiling. Tell us the real one. It changes what we recommend.
- Your timing window, including any date you cannot move.
- Who is making the final call on colors.
Pricing
How our pricing works, before you hear a number
You should be able to check our math. Here is the whole method.
Interior painting
Priced by wall square footage, $1.10 to $5.00 / sq ft. A 10x10 room in two coats runs about $589. Condition, ceilings and trim decide where you land in that range.
Wallpaper
Installation runs about $1.75 / sq ft. Removal starts from $1.25 / sq ft and moves with layers and what is underneath.
Exterior, cabinets, commercial
Exteriors are priced by measured siding area. Cabinets are priced by door, drawer, face, handle and hinge count, plus a materials base. Spray setup and oak grain fill are explicit options. Commercial is priced per project around your hours.
All projects carry a $450 minimum.
Video neededThe 80% video: David answering the eight questions we get on nearly every job, filmed in a finished home, 8 to 12 minutes
Watch first
The eight questions we get on nearly every job
If you only do one thing before the walkthrough, watch this. It covers prep, coats, timing, payment, warranty, cleanup, colors and what can go wrong.
Ask us anything
Still have a question?
Send it over and we will answer it. We answer questions publicly on this site, because if you are wondering it, someone else is wondering the same thing and nobody has told them straight.